Two Little Girls in Blue: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2006

In a riveting new thriller, worldwide bestselling suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark weaves the mystery of twin telepathy into a mother's search for a kidnapped child, presumed dead.

Margaret and Steve Frawley celebrate the third birthday of their twin girls, Kelly and Kathy, with an afternoon party in their new home, a modest fixer-upper in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The evening of the twins' birthday party, Steve and Margaret attend a black-tie dinner in New York. When they return home, the police are in the house, and they are told that the babysitter had been found unconscious, the children are gone, and a note demanding an eight-million-dollar ransom had been left in their room.

Steve Frawley's firm, a global investment company, agrees to pay the ransom. The kidnapper, who identifies himself as the "Pied Piper," makes his terms known -- on delivery of the ransom, a call will come, revealing the girls' whereabouts. The call comes, but only Kelly is in the car parked behind a deserted restaurant. The driver is dead from a gunshot wound and has left a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and had dumped her body in the ocean.

At the private memorial Mass for Kathy, Kelly tugs Margaret's arm and says: "Mommy, Kathy is very scared of that lady. She wants to come home right now." More unexplainable occurrences follow, indicating that Kelly is in touch with Kathy. At first, no one except the mother believes that the twins are communicating and that Kathy is still alive. As Kelly's warnings become increasingly specific and alarming, however, FBI agents set out on a search for Kathy. The novel reaches a breathtaking climax as they close in on the Pied Piper and his accomplices, while Kathy's life hangs by a thread.

In delving into the well-documented but still unexplained phenomenon of twin telepathy, Mary Higgins Clark tells a spellbinding tale that takes us deep into the minds of her characters while lifting us to the heights of suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Bestseller Clark is at her best when writing of crime against children, as shown in this chilling tale of kidnapping, murder and telepathy. Before leaving for a black-tie affair in New York City, Margaret and Steve Frawley celebrate the third birthday of their twin girls, Kathy and Kelly, with a party at their new home in Ridgefield, Conn. Later that night, when Margaret can't reach the babysitter, she contacts the Ridgefield police. The frantic couple return home to find the children missing and a ransom note demanding $8 million. Though the Frawleys meet all the conditions, only Kelly turns up in a car along with a dead driver and a suicide note saying that Kathy has died. But Kelly's telepathic messages from her sister keep telling her differently, and Margaret won't give up hope. Even the most skeptical law enforcement officers and the FBI, who pursue suspects from New York to Cape Cod, begin to believe Kelly is on to something. Clues from ordinary people lead to a riveting conclusion. Rivaling Clark's debut—Where Are the Children?—this suspense thriller is certain to send terror into the heart of any parent. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Clark's thirty-third book revisits the subject matter of her first (Where Are the Children? 1975), addressing every parent's worst nightmare, the abduction of children. Steve and Margaret Frawley return to their new house after a night out on the town to discover that their three-year-old twins, Kelly and Kathy, have been kidnapped. The kidnappers are demanding an $8 million ransom. As the executives at the company where Steve works debate paying the ransom, the three kidnappers, Lucas, Clint, and Clint's unstable girlfriend, Angie, wait for instructions from the plot's mastermind, who identifies himself only as the Pied Piper. Steve's company agrees to pay the ransom, but the Pied Piper's plan goes awry when Angie decides she wants to keep Kathy and shoots Lucas, leaving a fake suicide note claiming he accidentally killed Kathy. Although she is grateful to be reunited with Kelly, Margaret can't accept the loss of Kathy and clings to Kelly's assertion that she is in psychic communication with her twin. Clark's latest novel lacks the nail-biting suspense of some of her previous ones, but given how the subject matter dovetails with that of her first popular novel, expect interest. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743264908
• ISBN-13: 978-0743264907
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If I were to define myself in one sentence, I would say, "I'm a nice Irish Catholic girl from the Bronx."

I was a Christmas Eve baby all those years ago, the second of the three children of Nora and Luke Higgins. Mother was pushing forty when they married and my father was forty-two. My older brother was named Joseph. Nineteen months later I, Mary, was born. Three and a half years later, my little brother, John, came along.

We lived in a very nice section of the Bronx on a street off Pelham Parkway. I loved our house. I still love it. After my father died, when I was eleven, my mother had to sell it.

I went to Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School. Two years ago I went back and was Principal for a Day. Escorted by two of the tiniest children, I was led into the auditorium while the whole student body sang "Hello Mary. You're back where you belong." I still tear up thinking about it.

I was awarded a scholarship to Villa Maria Academy which is in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, otherwise I couldn't have afforded to set foot in it.

I went to Woods Secretarial School and at eighteen had my first full-time job as Secretary to the creative director of Remington Rand's in-house advertising agency. If I were making that choice now I would have gone to college even though God knows we needed the income. On the other hand the three years I spent in Remington Rand was a tutorial in advertising which served me well when I was widowed with five small children. Another plus was that I left Remington to be a flight stewardess with Pan American Airways and when my contemporaries were seniors in college, I was flying to Europe, Africa and Asia.

Warren Clark and I were married on December 26, 1949 and had five children in the next eight years; Marilyn, Warren, David, Carol and Patricia. Warren died of a heart attack in 1964. The highest compliment I can pay my kids are that they are like him.

I sold my first short story when I was twenty-eight. It was alled 'Stowaway'. It had been rejected forty times before a magazine in Chicago bought it for one hundred dollars.

My first book was about George Washington. It was published in 1969 and disappeared without a trace. Three years ago Simon and Schuster co-published it with the Mount Vernon Historical Society and retitled 'Mount Vernon Love Story', it became a bestseller.

My first suspense novel 'Where Are the Children' was bought in 1974 for three thousand dollars by Simon and Schuster. Thirty-three books later, I'm still with S&S.

Time to wind up - at least for the present. As soon as I sold 'Children' I enrolled in Fordham College. Went there for five years at night and earned a B.A. in Philosophy. Summa cum laude, if you please.

I never thought I'd marry again but ten years ago I threw a cocktail party on St. Patrick's day. My daughter, Pat, urged me to invite John Conheeney. Her opening words about him were, "Have I got a hunk for you!" He came to the party and we were married eight months later.

I'm Honorary Chairman of FraXa Research. My grandson, David, has the Fragile X syndrome, which is the second leading cause of retardation after Downs Syndrome. Basically the brain of the people who have it can't send out the proper signals because there's a kind of short circuit in the synapses that carry the signals. We raise money for research with the goal of finding a medication that will work around that short circuit. I go all over the country to the fund-raisers as new chapters of FraXa are opened.

I'm always asked to name my favorite book. They're ALL my favorites. If there is one book that is very special to me, it is my memoir 'Kitchen Privileges' because writing it made me relive my early life including those first struggles to become a writer. I think 'Kitchen Privileges' is both tender and funny and it's me.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful Story of Kidnapping and Twin Telepathy, July 11, 2006

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Two Little Girls in Blue: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was once a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark, but several books ago tired of her young woman in jeopardy theme and said "no more." However, the buzz on this one lured me back one more time and I'm glad. She returns to the subject she did so well in her very first (and still the best) novel, "Where Are the Children?"

Two beautiful three-year-old twins are taken from their home while their parents are at a party and the baby sitter is overcome by the kidnappers. It's every parent's worst nightmare and MHC excels in showing the anguish Margaret and Steve Frawley feel when Kelly and Kathy are abducted from their own bedroom. The most interesting part of this story, however, is the telepathy the three-year-olds have. When one twin is returned safely and the other one is feared dead, only Margaret believes Kelly is communicating with the still-missing Kathy. But soon the police, FBI, and everyone involved becomes a believer and a desperate chase from New York to Cape Cod ensues.

The chapters are brief and riveting, the characters well-defined, and the suspense all-encompassing as readers experience the trauma and abuse inflicted on the children by the kidnappers. There are lots of red herrings and only the savviest reader may figure this one out before the finale.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a thing is believable in this sad excuse for a thriller..., May 29, 2006

By 

Lisa Colette "aka Spenser8" (Jackson, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Little Girls in Blue: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have only read a few of Mary Higgins Clark's books and this will no doubt be my last. After eagerly waiting two weeks for the book at the library, I finally got it and spent the whole day reading it. I am very thankful not to have spent my own money on it.

The characters are just not realistic. The twins are supposed to be three years old yet their verbal skills are far more advanced and would be more applicable to a first grader. Their "twin talk" between each other is more like a "super telepathic psychic connection" as even though they are separated great distances, they hold conversations with each other just by speaking aloud and they share each other's injuries and sickness. In addition, they can both see what the other sees.

There are a number of characters who have vital clues to the children's kidnapping, but for silly and often implausible reasons, they brush off their feelings as absurd and never bother to involve the police. When a young store clerk believes she knows who the kidnapper is and where the children are located, she never bothers to contact the authorities. Later, when she really has proof and knows that she was probably right all along, she still does not contact the police or FBI, but goes off on her own to the kidnapper's home to check it out herself! Several characters decide to wait before contacting the police or they have convenient distractions that prevent their calling.

Like a cheap horror film, the plot was predictable and the characters' behaviors ridiculous and unbelievable. I literally found myself wanting to yell at the people to stop being so damned stupid and just do what any decent, normal person would do in the same situation.

All in all, it was an extremely disappointing read and there is nothing to recommend it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars My first and last, August 30, 2006

By 

M. Goodrich (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Two Little Girls in Blue : A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

The characters in this book are shallow and undeveloped. I kept waiting for the characters to be developed or to catch my interest. Never happened. Ms. Clark introduces character after character to keep the story moving but never fully explains their personalities. What a boring read! I predicted the plot long before there really was one. I bought into the buzz about this novel and now wish I hadn't bought the book or the buzz. What a disappointment!